Roans

Roan is a white pattern gene that causes the coat on a (usually) cream based hamster to gradually become more flecked with white from the head to the rear. In most other colors, it causes the hamster to have a white belly. This can be confusing if the hamster already has a white belly due to some other pattern gene. It can be dangerous, since this gene in it's homozygous from causes Eyeless Whites. So if you breed this gene be careful! I will be adding more pics as I get them. The genetic code for roan or white bellied is Whwh. I will put only the color code below, ignoring the other genes in parantheses as not to confuse.

Sable and Sable Roan Siblings for comparison

Sable Roan eeUuWhwh, eeUUWhwh

Sometimes a white belly can hide on a hamster. These hamsters below were bought at pet stores on different days.The white bellied tortoiseshell below just seemed to have a larger than normal white spot on her stomach. (Often you will see small white spot on black tort bellies.) She was bred to the dominant spot black male below. His belly was white, but dominant spot turns the belly white, so there was no reason to think he may be Whwh as well. It just didn't seem likely that someone would loose a bunch of white bellies into a pet store population, but of course that's what happened. The result? Five pups - three possible white bellied and two eyeless whites. Of course we had to keep the eyeless whites. The female, Cecilia, was with me a year and a half. She was not used for breeding - not that the pups wouldn't be healthy, but she may be at a disadvantage raising pups. That could stress her, and also I prefer to breed only hamster colors that roan. Therefore there won't be any confusion about whether these animals have the Wh gene. She's actually a very sweet hamster, but obviously this isn't something anyone should want to strive for! Interestingly, she just appears to have her eyes closed. But that effectively ended my pet store purchases - it's important to know where your hamsters come from! Cecilia is pictured below her parents.

Black Dominant Spot White Bellied aaDsdsWhwh

Black Tortoiseshell White Bellied aaTotoWhwh

Eyeless White WhWh

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